You may recall how recently an array of high ranking Israeli officials in the Netanyahu government, including National Security Council head Ya’akov Amidror and Interior Minister Eli Yishai, briefed ultra-Orthodox rabbi and Shas leader Ovadia Yosef on the proposed war with Iran in the hopes of receiving his blessing. Both the war (which Netanyahu reportedly wants before the U.S. presidential election) and the need to get nod from a religious leader were criticized, including by some of us who noted the extreme views of Yosef. Now, Yosef has called upon Jews to pray for the death of Iranians and the destruction of the nation of Iran. Now we have spiritual leaders is both countries calling on God to annihilate whole countries as examples of divine and moral justice.
Yosef told his followers that good Jews should pray for destruction of the enemies of Israel, particularly Iran and Hezbollah. The lesson in morality came with his weekly sermon and specified that the prayers should arrange for the annihilation of the Iranian during Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year). Apparently just to be clear in the prayers to avoid the annihiation of similarly sounding countries, Yoseh stressed “When we say ‘may our enemies be struck down’ on Rosh Hashana, it shall be directed at Iran, the evil ones who threaten Israel. God shall strike them down and kill them.”
With Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also calling on God to destroy Israel, we have perfect agreement on one point from both sides: God is being who can be called upon to kill millions in the name of faith. These guys both sound and look remarkably alike.
As noted in the earlier blog, Yosef has long espoused extreme and hateful views, including likening Palestinians to snakes and calling for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to “perish from this world” and describing non-Jews as “born only to serve us”. This is the person that the Israeli government wants to bless the upcoming war . Of course, as noted earlier, the scheduling of a new war against Iran before the U.S. election would be a transparent effort to use the American politics to guarantee support for the war on the assumption that neither candidate would want to risk alienating the Jewish vote and campaign donors. At a minimum, Israel would expect that the U.S. would help pay for the war — if not immediately than in a later mix of loans and military assistance. We could then ultimately find ourselves in a third war, particularly if Iran strikes U.S. assets in response to an Israeli attack. Of course we will have the comfort of knowing that Ovadia Yosef says it is all perfectly moral.
Source: Haaretz
I’m a Christian and I hate institutionalized religion. I don’t want institutionalized atheism, christianity, islam, or jewish orthodoxy ruling over me and making deicisions on who I should kill. Back in the dark ages, the Christians were the ones getting burned at the stake as the evil people in power co-opted Jesus’s teachings, changed quite a few things, and then proceeeded to force it upon people, calling it The Holy Catholic church. That’s why America’s founders were so wary of state religion, because of all the war and death it brings on.
frankly:
That is what Iamanutjob wants to do to Israel.
one would think that religious leaders would glom onto the subject of ‘peace, love and understanding…’
Oh and the shades? Looks like Jack Horner from “Boogie Nights.”
I second Justic Holmes, Israel is not “a cancer.” That was either hyperbole or hate.
Again, I’m backing Frankly. Those were my words.
I think he got those shades from Steppenwolf.
Bron – lets, for the sake of humanity, assume your suggestion that Israel should cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people because you don’t like their leadership was tongue in cheek.
But what, exactly, do you think the worlds reaction to such a slaughter would be? Do you think Russia would stand by wringing its hands and say “Oh well”? Do you think Europe would not demand the most severe sanctions and impose draconian measures that would cause Israel more trouble? Even in the US such a move would cause a titanic shift in public opinion and maybe even move our government to stop its obsequious capitulation to the Likhud?
The green glass option is often suggested as a cure all by crackpots in the US but only if very little thought is given to the actual results
Amy Alkon,
Here’s a connected story. An Assyrian father here in Sweden told me the story of one of his very young sons, hurt in an accident, who was ignored in a Islamic country in a hospital run by muslims. The boy died after 3 hours waiting for treatment. One story. I have heard many similar, but none like this one. They speak the same language as Jesus did. Doesn’t seem to help them.
Amy, I can pull that same sort of generosity out of the Koran & find the same sort of death threats in the Old Testament. Religious crackpots are religious crackpots no matter which hairy thunderer they think they hear speaking to them.
Much of the current animosity coming from the Muslim world has more to do with political and economic conditions than the mandates of some invisible sky wizard. Its nice for you to believe “my side doesn’t do that” but it is delusional.
I once was given hell here for saying that Jews in America and Israel had disproportionate influence over USA politics. Now I’ve met some poor jews, learned a bit more how zealots and politics work.
Sooooo????
Here comes Nutinyahooo and shows me that he is willing to use the Prez campaign to strongarm us into WW3.
I don’t frankly care what his ethnicity or religion is, just so you understand. I love individual jews, ie the ones I can choose. As a tribe, I don’t dig them so much. But then I don’t dig any tribes with world power. The two don’t go together. Just like Catholic priests and children.
Recently, after the previous post on this rabbi, I have accused him of wanting to go down in history as the cause of a second shoah or should that be holocaust.
And now he doubles-down again. What chutzpah.
A shame he waan’t born in the USA. Or was he?
Has China taken sides? Or Russia. What is France saying? Britain. N. Korea. India? Pakistan? Obama? Romney’s all for war
.
Sane leaders without nukes?
Maybe the Jews should just use the nuclear weapons they have and make an end to the troubles in the middle east.
I know it is a unilateral solution but then the Palestinians would have a big new homeland. And if the Jews used neutron bombs then Iran would be habitable pretty quickly.
Who says nukes dont have a place in this world?
But the Jews need to make sure that Russia and China know they can have the Iranian oil. I am sure the Russians and Chinese only care about Iranian oil anyway.
John Bolton and Hillary Clinton try to complicate things way too much.
The Jews should use the excuse of making a homeland for the Palestinians for destroying Iran. That way the Palestinians will be on board with nuking Iran. That would be a good deal of land and oil to split.
This is awful and barbaric (and very rare in Judaism). The difference is, Islam demands the death or conversion of “the infidel” (especially Jews), while Judaism says that saving a life is the highest form of righteousness. Doctors in Israeli hospitals will put sick Palestinians before Israeli soldiers if their condition is more serious.
So we have one God against the other. Personally I don’t believe in Gods, but stupid conniving people. Yes, definitely,
Mespoo,
As experts, no. As herders of sheep, yes.
Israel is not a cancer but this call by a “religious” leader is madness, sheer madness.
For a moment I thought the writing was about union bosses. It’s just religious bosses … Men of God, indeed.
Mespo,
We follow the money trail….. That’s why…..
Everything in a context.
Is Israel a cancer in the area ? Yes.
Is it only Iran who sees Israel as such ? No
Wiping each other out, isn’t the solution, mainly because Israel is and have been the only one capable of doing so since always.
The better solution would be for Zionist Jews to pack-up, say thank you and sorry for over 60 years of misery, or trade lands with the Palestinians, switch location for 60 years and develop Palestine and you end up with two lovely places enough for its original owners.
Don’t give me mail with the Holocaust scenario, it has nothing to do with it, or the Palestinians.
And when you point out all the wars that have used religious dogma as an excuse to theists they proclaim it to be an historical exaggeration and contemporarily none existant (them Jews and Arabs are fighting over land it has nothing to do with religion is the argument I hear.)
Tell me again why we hold up religious leaders as experts on matters of politics and international relations.